Engineer Memoirs
Q:
What about the black cadets? Do you remember them?
A:
Well, we had one black cadet in our class, [Lieutenant Colonel Henry] Minton Francis.
He is here in Washington now, and we see him often. The academy was segregated
when we were cadets.
Q:
It must have been very difficult.
A:
Well, it was very difficult for the black cadets. Minton Francis started out in L
Company. There were two black cadets in the class of January 1943. That would have
been two years ahead of us. One of them was the son of General Davis.
Q:
Benjamin Davis.
A:
[Lieutenant General] Benjamin [O.] Davis, Jr. went into the Air Force and was quite
successful. Incidentally, in those days, cadets were assigned to companies by
height--tall in the end companies, A and M, and short in the middle companies, F and
G. The L Company was near the end, a relatively tall company. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.,
was a big, tall guy, and Francis was tall. Cadets are no longer assigned to companies
by height, so I won't talk about that any more.
The story was that to avoid problems over hazing or anything like that Benjamin O.
Davis said, "I will give Francis his plebe year." Upperclassmen generally would not
harass Francis.
Davis was to be in charge of Francis. I suspect this was only partially effective in
practice. More than that, the black cadets were socially isolated. Francis had a room by
himself. He didn't participate in any of the social activities of the class, any of the hops,
or any other social gathering. It was a segregated Army, and it was a very lonely
situation.
World War II Experience, 19441945
Q:
I was kind of surprised this morning. I just learned, when I looked at your resume, that
you did go to Fort Belvoir [Virginia] after you left the military academy. I thought
under those conditions you might have gone straight to--
A:
The Army felt that everybody needed some seasoning. The program at West Point had
been shortened. Although they tried to give us troop leadership, they felt everybody
needed seasoning. The engineer lieutenants from the class of 1944 went to Fort Belvoir
and had a six-week basic course.
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